Sunday, November 20, 2016

With Thanksgiving around the corner, most people already know exactly what they are going to eat on that day. Vegans, raw food lovers and people with some other dietary needs or preferences do not always have an easy choice at family gatherings, unless of course, their entire social circle subscribes to the same lifestyle. I created two recipes that everybody will love.

~ Raw, Vegan Festive Stuffing Recipe ~

One of the traditional dishes served on Thanksgiving day is the stuffing. Stuffing is a "mixture" that is normally used to stuff the turkey, but is also enjoyed as as side dish.

I created a raw, gluten free, and vegan recipe that makes a delicious alternative to the traditional baked recipes that normally contain bread and often are not suitable for vegans. Use this recipe as inspiration for your won inventions.

Ingredients:

2 1/2 cups chopped pumpkin or winter squash (I used Hokkaido pumpkin)

1/2 cup chopped celery (1 medium large celery rib)

1 small purple onion, chopped (about 1/4 cup)

1 1/2 cup walnuts (soaked in water overnight)

1 Tbsp chopped fresh rosemary (leaves of 1 twig, stem removed)

1 tsp dried sage

1 tsp dried thyme

1 large garlic clove, minced

1 tsp pink Himalaya salt

1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper

1/4 cup virgin olive oil

1/4 cup fresh cranberries

1/2 cup dried cranberries (soaked and softened in water for an hour)

Method:

Toss pumpkin, celery, onion, garlic, walnuts, fresh cranberries, and herbs into a bowl of a food processor and pulse blend until all ingredients are chopped into a coarse texture. Do not over blend.

Add soaked cranberries and pulse blend until they are chopped up and incorporated into a mixture. Keep the texture coarse.

Add olive oil, salt and pepper and pulse again. Adjust the taste if needed. Add more herbs if you prefer.

Transfer the stuffing into a serving bowl or make individual portions and serve. Enjoy in good company!

Cranberries are in season and they usually show up on Thanksgiving table as a savory sauce or in salads and deserts. Raw cranberries are very tart and perfect in raw food recipes as well. I created an incredibly versatile dish that, with some minor adjustments, can double as sauce, salad dressing, pesto or a smoothie base.

~ Raw Cranberry Relish Recipe ~

Ingredients:

3/4 cup fresh cranberries

1/2 cup dried cranberries (re-hydrated in filtered water)

1 garlic clove, minced

1/2 tsp dried thyme

1 Tbsp virgin olive oil (add more if needed)

1/2 tsp crushed pink peppercorns

pinch pink Himalaya salt

Method:

In a food processor pulse blend all the ingredients into a coarse texture.

Adjust the taste to your personal liking and serve as a condiment or a side dish. Enjoy in good company!

Tip: A word about dried cranberries. Most products on the market, even the most organic ones, are sold sweetened. The best products contain apple juice, the worst sugar or syrup of some sorts. Try to buy a product that is a natural as possible, not only in its marketing pitch. If you get cranberries that are dried, but unsweetened, use small amount of raw honey or maple syrup to add a little sweetness to both dishes. You can also add one or two medjol dates. Simply soak the dates in water overnight and blend them into a paste. Use the paste as as sweetener.

I truly hope that you will enjoy this recipes and wish you an amazing and peaceful Thanksgiving.

Thursday, November 3, 2016

One of the biggest complaints about raw food is that everything is cold and not very suitable for the cold season when most people crave warm, comforting food.

One way to make your raw food appealing for the cold season is to make it nice and creamy and add warming spices. You can change your favorite smoothie recipes and adapt them to the winter. The other way to create comforting winter raw food is to simply blend your favorite ingredients into a soup and warm it up to about 118°F or 47°C. Beyond this temperature the enzymes in your food will perish.

Pumpkins are in season so what could be better than a warming, creamy pumpkin soup! This is one of my very-easy-to-make versatile recipes. You can use different spices to make your soup taste different every time you make it. You can also use carrots or sweet potatoes when pumpkin is not in season. You can make it using a high speed blender, but if you do not have one, you can gently warm the soup up. You will need a kitchen thermometer, though, to make sure that you do not exceed the suggested temperature.

Process all ingredients (except olive oil and the pumpkin seeds) in a high speed blender until smooth and creamy. The longer you process the ingredients, the warmer the soup. Use kitchen thermometer to make sure that you do not exceed the suggested temperature of 118°F.

Taste the soup and adjust the taste to your personal liking. If the soup is too thick, add a little filtered water or more nut milk and blend again. Add the olive oil and whiz for a few seconds.

Transfer the soup into individual soup bowls, garnish with pumpkin seeds and serve right away. Enjoy in good company!

Tip: As I mentioned above you can use the same basic ingredients to make a very different soup. Try it using Thai style coconut milk, turmeric, and lots of chili and fresh ginger if you want to give your soup and slightly Asian touch.

Pumpkin is good for you! Add fresh pumpkin and pumpkin seeds to your raw (and cooked recipes) as often as you can. Pumpkins are rich in fiber, vitamin A and beta carotene. They can help you improve your vision, protect you from cancer and prevent cardiovascular disease. Pumpkin seeds are rich in minerals such as magnesium, manganese, zinc and copper. They also contain omega-3 fatty acids, sleep promoting amino acid tryptophan, antioxidants and plant compounds known as phytosterols. Among others, they can help prevent prostate cancer and stop inflammatory processes in the body. They can be eaten raw, turned to s delicious seed batter or blended into a meal that can be used in many raw food recipes. Enjoy them often.

In radiant health - passionately raw - Dominique

*Information in this article is for educational purposes only. It is not meant to diagnose or cure a disease.

worth reading

Today, more than ninety five percent of all chronic disease is caused by food choice, toxic food ingredients, nutritional deficiencies and lack of physical exercise. - Mike Adams

Vitamin B12 for vegans!

Your health is what you make of it. Everything you do and think either adds to the vitality, energy and spirit you possess or takes away from it. - Ann Wigmore

Be Like A Pineapple T-Shirt

One of the very nicest things about life is the way we must regularly stop whatever it is we are doing and devote our attention to eating. - Luciano Pavarotti

Why chose raw food?

The raw food diet, also known as the living food diet, is a diet primarily based on pure, unprocessed and uncooked plant foods, such as fresh fruit and vegetables, sprouts, seeds, nuts, grains, beans, nuts, dried fruit, and seaweed. While many people on raw food are vegans, some do not necessarily exclude other raw foods such as raw eggs, raw honey, raw milk, meat and fish.

The raw food diet consists of 75 - 100 percent raw foods and may include some foods that are cooked or baked. For a better absorption of nutrients raw diet should also include raw fermented foods.

It is important to understand that heating food above 118°F or 47°C destroys most of the enzymes that normally assist in the digestion of food and absorption of nutrients. On the energy level, cooking is believed to diminish the nutritional value and the "life force" of food thus making cooked and processed foods energetically less valuable to the body.

Proponents of the raw food diet believe it has numerous health benefits, including:

For many people raw food means more than a way to obtain nutrition. It is a joyful lifestyle they embrace consciously, knowing that it will lead them to a better mental and physical health and a much happier life.

Radish Detox Smoothie

Health, excellent or ill, is passed to our children not just through our genes but primarily through our recipes. - Joanne L. Mumola Williams

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This is a Google ads free blog. To support my work this blog is monetized through my Amazon store, GHC store, and Redbubble store affiliate links. This means that if you were to make a purchase through one of these links, I would receive a small percentage of the sale price. I only link to products I trust and wholeheartedly recommend. Also, if I write a review of a product, I do it because I tried it out myself. I never get paid to write a review. My first priority is always to provide valuable information and resources to help you create positive changes in your life. I will only ever link to products or resources (affiliate or otherwise) that fit within this purpose.Thank you very much for your support!